118 the florist and pomologist. 
I know, of late years, it has been the fashion to decry the hardihood of 
these fruits in this country. Now that glass is cheap every unsuccessful grower 
says the Peach should be in all cases covered with glass to ensure a crop. I 
would ask such, Are you prepared to prove that the climate of this country 
is more severe than it was thirty or forty years ago ? Unless that can be 
proved I opine that, with proper care and close attention to a proper course of 
culture, from making the border to the ripening of the first crop of fruit, the 
trees bearing these delicious fruits can be grown as successfully now as our 
older gardeners grew them fifty years ago. It is true when unfavourable 
seasons occur unprotected trees will suffer; but in such seasons the skill, atten¬ 
tion, and forethought of a good gardener will be brought into play to overcome 
the untoward weather, and success in such seasons shows the difference of skill. 
Any careless cultivator can have a crop of fruit in warm summers, provided 
the preceding one has been warm also to ripen the wood of his Peach trees. 
But that is not sufficient for the owner; he wants fruit every year, and if he 
has provided all things necessary he ought to have his want supplied. 
The question now arises, What is required in order to succeed with mode¬ 
rate attention in cultivating the Peach in this country without the aid of glass ? 
The first thing is a proper situation. Formerly a great notion was entertained 
by our gardeners, or planners of gardens, that a low sheltered situation was 
the very best for a garden. That mistaken idea is, I think, now entirely 
exploded. A low situation, instead of being the best, is the worst for a fruit 
garden. The most careless observer must have remarked that tender plants 
suffer earliest from frost, both in the spring and autumn, in low grounds ; 
whilst on moderately high land the slight frost has no effect on them. Many 
an autumn eve we see heavy mists on low grounds, whilst higher land is quite 
clear of them. The reason of this is that cold air is heavier than warm air, 
and therefore it sinks down by its gravity and shows itself as mist, displacing 
the warmer; and when the cold is so intense as to reach the freezing-point, 
vegetation suffers. These patent facts lead to the conclusion that a fruit garden 
should be placed on a moderately elevated platform. Even an elevation of 
50 or 100 feet above the bottom of a valley would be desirable. I might give 
many instances of places where the gardens are placed in low situations, where 
such fruits as the Peach, Nectarine, and Apricot often fail in yielding fruit. 
Sufficient for my purpose it is to mention Chatsworth, Worsley Hall, Trent- 
ham, and the old garden, now removed, at Welbeck. In such places where 
the gardens are still continued it has been found necessary to cover the Peach 
walls with glass, in order first to ripen the wood, and secondly to ripen the 
fruit. This covering of glass is not adopted for the purpose of forcing the 
fruit into early maturity, but is used merely as a protection against early and 
late frost. In a properly elevated situation the glass as a protective agent may 
be dispensed with. 
From the above remarks I think it will be seen, that in order to succeed in 
Peach-culture against walls without glass, it is desirable—nay, absolutely neces¬ 
sary, to place the garden, where possible, in a moderately elevated situation. 
If there are higher grounds on the north, north-east, and north-west sides of 
the garden, and those hills are planted with forest trees to shelter the garden 
from the winds blowing from these quarters, you have the best situation imma- 
ginable, not only for fruit-tree walls, but for every other production expected 
from a garden. Let every one, then, who has the forming of new gardens, 
study over the above remarks, and, if possible, choose such a site for the fruit 
and kitchen garden. 
Soil.— The next most important agent for the production of the fruits. 
Peaches and Nectarines, is the soil. This includes drainage, subsoil, and surface 
